summer learning series – MindShifthttps://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift
KQED Public Media for Northern CAFri, 09 Dec 2016 08:49:32 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.2KQED Public Media for Northern CAsummer learning series – MindShiftKQED Public Media for Northern CAMindShiftsummer learning series – MindShifthttp://u.s.kqed.net/2016/08/25/MindShiftiTunegraphic1400x1400.pnghttps://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift
Teens Show Off Engineering Mettle With Pasta Bridge Competitionhttps://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/07/30/teens-demonstrate-engineering-mettle-with-pasta-bridge-competition/
Thu, 30 Jul 2015 20:30:40 +0000http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/?p=41419Imagine having to build a bridge — a strong bridge — out of nothing but epoxy and spaghetti.

Yeah, hard. Just ask one of the 160 high schoolers who recently finished Engineering Innovation, a rigorous, monthlong summer camp run by Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and a handful of other cities. They didn’t just have to imagine it; they had to do it.

Students come from all over the world to get what is, for many, their first real taste of engineering in the classroom. The idea behind the program is simple: Give students a chance to explore complex ideas using remarkably simple tools.

“They’ve heard of engineering, but in high school they know almost nothing.”

Example: Measure the distance between two spires on the Hopkins campus using nothing but a few measuring sticks, string and tape.

Students also have to design a mousetrap out of nothing but paper, glue and rubber bands.

But the grand finale — the last big test for students — is the spaghetti bridge.

The Shatter

“I’m so scared right now,” says Bidyut Mani, 16, playfully cringing as his team begins adding weight to their bridge.

It’s the last day of camp, and Bidyut’s team, Penne For Your Thoughts?, sits onstage in a campus auditorium surrounded by classmates and parents. Bidyut’s on edge because students here are graded, and those who finish the month with at least a B-average earn three Johns Hopkins engineering credits.

When Bidyut’s bridge — named Bridget, naturally — easily holds the minimum 6.5 pounds, he and his teammates cheer as if they’ve just won the competition. But for them, it’s only beginning. Every team is expected to keep adding weight until this happens …

The Rules

Bridges can weigh no more than half a pound and have to be made of spaghetti or other solid, cylindrical pastas — like capellini or vermicelli.

No ziti, people.

Too tall (over 10 inches) and points will be deducted. Ditto a bridge’s weight. Anything over that half-pound and judges impose a stiff penalty.

Onstage, teams set their bridges over a 20-inch gap, hang a chain from the middle and begin ever-so-gently attaching weights.

You can tell how well a bridge is built not just by the weight it holds, but by how it breaks. A weaker bridge will quickly bend, then collapse. A strong bridge will hold firm until it shatters, making this amazing sound:

Why the Mission: Impastable?

“They’ve heard of engineering, but in high school they know almost nothing,” says retired professor Michael Karweit. He designed the camp’s curriculum, hoping to give promising high schoolers with an interest in engineering a chance to “get dirty, so to speak.”

High school students in the Johns Hopkins University summer program, Engineering Innovation, compete in an annual spaghetti bridge-building competition. Above: The A’hunna Key-Lows push their bridge to the limit. Below: The Key-Lows’ winning bridge shatters — but only after holding 53 pounds. (Lydia Thompson/NPR)

And that’s exactly what campers were doing the day before the competition, in the last frantic minutes of the allotted bridge-building time.

“We’re barely 1 gram under weight,” says Bidyut, feeling more relaxed after a trip to the scale.

Across the workroom, Amelia Hawley, 17, wears bright green goggles. She’s been sanding extra epoxy off her bridge. But it, too, came in underweight, so her team is debating some late add-ons to strengthen it. With one problem:

“The epoxy takes 24 hours to dry and cure,” Amelia says. “And so we only have not 24 hours before the actual competition.”

Despite the deadline, everyone seems to be having fun, tweaking their bridges and their team names. Turns out, teens love their pasta puns:

Before revealing who won, a few pasta bridge-building basics:

First: The engineering equivalent of a safe bet, in this case, was the half wagon wheel. It’s strong, with all of its supports focused on the center of the bridge where the weights were hung. Keep in mind, this is a terrible design for an actual bridge that will need to support weight equally across its length.

Second rule of bridge club: Triangles = strength.

Third: Some crafty students glued spaghetti strands together into hollow tubes — for the sections of bridge that would be compressed by the added weight. Because strength, in that case, comes from diameter not solidity, and keeping the tubes hollow saved weight that teams could use elsewhere.

So, whose pasta masterwork ultimately won the day?

Mani’s Penne For Your Thoughts? did well, holding 15 pounds. While Hawley’s team — Foxy Epoxy — tied for third place with a whopping 26 pounds.

But the winner, from Team A’hunna Key-Lows (A Hundred Kilos, get it?), held a mind-bending (but not bridge-bending) 53 pounds.

Spaghetti and teenagers … it’s amazing what they can do under pressure.

Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

]]>High school students in the Johns Hopkins University summer program, Engineering Innovation, compete in an annual spaghetti bridge-building competition. Above: The A’hunna Key-Lows push their bridge to the limit. Below: The Key-Lows’ winning bridge shatters — but only after holding 53 pounds.High school students in the Johns Hopkins University summer program, Engineering Innovation, compete in an annual spaghetti bridge-building competition. <strong>Above:</strong> The A'hunna Key-Lows push their bridge to the limit. <strong>Below:</strong> The Key-Lows' winning bridge shatters — but only after holding 53 pounds.Ready, Set, Read! Summer Fiction Ideas for Kids of All Ageshttps://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/06/14/ready-set-read-summer-fiction-ideas-for-kids-of-all-ages/
https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/06/14/ready-set-read-summer-fiction-ideas-for-kids-of-all-ages/#commentsFri, 14 Jun 2013 17:30:36 +0000http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/?p=29247 ” credit=”Getty

Prevent summer brain drain: that’s the reason many backpacks — most likely laying in the same places they were joyfully dropped on the last day of school — contain a rumpled, but hopefully not forgotten, summer reading list from school. Teachers and experts have long suggested that reading over summer break helps kids from losing everything they’ve learned over the school year. And new research shows that reading fiction especially might do more than serve kids academically – it may even make them better people.

Educator and author Jessica Lahey’s summer reading list for her seventh and eighth graders is packed with books that the teenagers will find “interesting but challenging.” One of Lahey’s summer favorites for eighth graders is Harper Lee’s classic To Kill a Mockingbird, both for the stretch it gives kids in complexity and vocabulary as well as supplementing the “easy” summer reading they may do on their own. She also wants to prepare them to think about “bigger issues raised by the books” — in this case the virtues and failings of the rich, complex characters.

Lahey has students write about the book when they get back to school in the fall, and wants them to choose a character and explore their virtues and faults, using examples from the text. “For example, Scout’s sense of fierce sense of loyalty toward her family and her lack of temperance,” Lahey said. “As seen when she attacks Walter Cunningham on the playground because she felt he got her in trouble with the teacher.” While Lahey says her students study To Kill a Mockingbird as part of a character education curriculum, she admits that the book makes great summer reading because its plot draws in teenagers, and the characters are faced with complex moral decisions.

Reading high-quality fiction may serve a larger purpose than preparing students for college and tests. Several recent studies show that reading great literature makes individuals more empathetic and more able to understand the world from another’s perspective, writes Annie Murphy Paul in “Reading Literature Makes Us Smarter and Nicer.” The results of the two studies Paul cites in the article, performed by Canadian psychologists Raymond Mar and Keith Oatley, were similar when applied to children: Raymond Mar’s study on preschoolers showed that, even when controlled for age, gender, vocabulary and parent income, young children who were read more stories developed a stronger “theory of mind,” or the ability to imagine the beliefs and intentions of another.

Increasing empathy isn’t the only way fiction makes us better; in a New York Times article on how the brain processes fiction, Paul breaks down research that shows human brains don’t really distinguish between fictional situations and real ones. “The brain, it seems, does not make much of a distinction between reading about an experience and encountering it in real life,” Paul writes, “in each case, the same neurological regions are stimulated.” For instance, when researcher Véronique Boulenger of the Laboratory of Language Dynamics in France had study participants read “Paulo kicked the ball,” brain scans revealed activity in the motor cortex region of the brain, which is responsible for body movements.

According to the psychologists, fiction creates a vivid real-life simulation in which humans get to experience the world through another’s thoughts and feelings. While even more research points to ways the brain “feels” fiction — from experiencing sensory details like smell to freely experiencing characters’ deep emotions as if they were our own — Paul writes on her blog how it may feel for fiction to work magic on our brains: “Who hasn’t felt, at the end of a truly great novel, a little exhausted and wrung out—as if, as [William] Styron says, we’ve been living several other lives in addition to our own?”

Rising fifth grader Hart Wilkinson of Nashville, Tennessee, agrees, adding that a great story makes her feel as if what happens to the character also happens to her.

“Sometimes, when something sad is about to happen [in a book], I get really sad, sometimes I feel like I’m about to cry,” she said. “Sometimes I’m so into the book, I feel like I’m the person. I don’t even notice that I’m doing it – it’s like real life, but on paper.”

Wilkinson combs her library shelves once a week in summer, choosing stories she thinks she’ll like by an exciting or colorful cover. Then she hauls her stash home and plops into her front-porch hammock, or gets under her covers at the end of the day to read. Nowhere to be, no homework or lessons to run off to, Wilkinson says that she loves to read fiction all summer “because it’s so much fun to figure out an adventure without my feet getting tired, to just read in a hammock but still have an adventure.”

Why does fiction whisk us away during the long, leisurely days of summer? “I think we read fiction in the summertime because we want to allow our minds to travel (whether we actually go anywhere or not),” Paul said. “Given a little more time and freedom than usual, we want to use it to get lost, to leave workaday concerns behind. Nonfiction can do that too, of course, but there’s something about fiction that takes us away, even if we’re just sitting in our backyards.”

Reading Suggestions

Los Angeles children’s librarian and NPR contributor Mara Alpert and Scarborough, Maine children’s librarian Louise Capizzo offer titles for kids of all ages rich in sensory details, with great characters who will take kids on summer adventures “without their feet getting tired.”

KINDERGARTEN – GRADE 3, chosen by Mara Alpert

Bad Kitty Gets a Bathby Nick Bruel

Even the most mundane activity can be the seeds for an exciting and/or funny and/or terrifying tale, as is the case with Bad Kitty and her bath (which is definitely exciting AND funny AND a little terrifying as well). The entire experience of Kitty’s bath is described in great detail (with accompanying illustrations that will have ‘em rolling in the aisles). Kids will look at chores and everyday events in a whole new way. First in a very funny series.

Awesome Dawsonby Chris Gall

Young Dawson’s motto is “Everything Can Be Used Again!” This “Hero To Toys Everywhere” has been recycling… well, everything to make his creations since babyhood. In his secret he prepares to make a new body for his robot friend Mooey. Unfortunately, his mom wants him to do his chores. Hey, what better way to use his talents then to build a robot to do the chores for him! Until, of course, it runs amok… Dawson makes recycling look awesome, indeed.

Ralph Tells a Story by Abby Hanlon

“Stories are everywhere!” insists Ralph’s teacher, but this kid has the worst case of writer’s block in the history of the world. He’s got nothing to write because NOTHING ever happens to him. Even when he learns that his classmate Daisy has written a bunch of stories about things that have happened to Ralph, he doesn’t believe it. Then he remembers the inchworm in the park, and with the help of his friends, Ralph discovers the joy of crafting personal stories. The creative and collaborative process, laid out neatly.

Cooking with Henry and Elliebelly by Carolyn Parkhurst

Inspiration can come from anywhere – in this case, the world of reality television. Five-year-old Henry and his little sister pretend to be TV chefs, creating a fantastic concoction, complete with commercials, technical difficulties, creative differences, and a mom who stands back and lets it all happen (then provides snack at the end). A yummy reminder of the fun of pretend play.

Clementine, by Sara Pennypacker illustrated by Marla Frazee.

Make room, Ramona Quimby and Junie B. Jones. Clementine charges onto the scene with the story of an absolutely disastrous week. Second-grader Clementine was just trying to be helpful when she cut off all of Margaret’s hair. And when she assisted in coloring what was left with a red marker. And when she cut off her own hair in solidarity. And… well, Clementine’s mind works in strange and mysterious ways, but she always makes a certain mad sense. She’s a feisty, creative soul, and kids will enjoy getting to know her.

GRADES 4 -8, chosen by Mara Alpert

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger

A group of sixth-grade kids, friends and enemies alike, try to work out the mystery behind Dwight’s Origami Yoda. Dwight is definitely the class oddball, prone to all kinds of unusual behavior, and this year he starts wandering around with a little Yoda figure made out of origami, which he claims gives advice and answers questions just as well as the real Yoda. And to everyone’s amazement, it seems to be true! Each kid offers their own take on the situation, including illustrations (plus food stains, commentary by other kids, and more). The first book in a series that continues to be just as strong as it explores creativity, differences, belief, what makes a piece of really good advice, and does it truly matter where in comes from, and the importance of friendship.

Hold Fast by Blue Balliett

Early Pearl, her little brother, and her parents share a one-room studio in a not-so-great neighborhood in Chicago, but it is a home rich with library books, imagination, and love. Then her father disappears, their home is destroyed, and the three remaining Pearls find themselves in a homeless shelter, learning survival skills they could never have dreamed they’d need. Early is a smart, resourceful, creative, and loving girl, who rises to the challenge of this new life, and of figuring out what really happened to her father, with fierce determination. The poetry of Langston Hughes, the glory that is the Chicago Public Library, and importance of reading play a major role is this ultimately optimistic tale.

Larklight, or The Revenge of the White Spiders! or To Saturn’s Rings and Back! A Rousing Tale of Dauntless Pluck in the Farthest Reaches of Space by Philip Reeve, illustrated by David Wyatt.

Just look at that title. ‘nuff said. In a Victorian era that never happened, Art Mumby and his annoying older sister Myrtle share a rambling old mansion that travels through space with their dad. When he is kidnapped during an attack of space spiders, Art and Myrtle hook up with a band of youthful space pirates to try and save him, and the universe. Oh, and to figure out what happened to their mother. This is world-building at its finest, told in a rousing, Saturday-Afternoon-Matinee style, complete with weird aliens, mad scientists, the beginnings of a romance for young Myrtle, and the opportunity to save the entire universe. Huzzah! First book in a series.

City of Fire by Laurence Yep

In an alternate 1941 universe where magic and technology exist more or less comfortably side-by-side, 12-year-old Scirye, a princess with a miniature griffin, gather around her an unlikely group of allies (including a motherly dragon who happens to be an assassin, an orphaned boy who happens to be the assassins target, a shape-changing trickster, and a Hawaiian goddess) begins a quest to avenge the death of her older sister and the loss of some of her family’s greatest treasures. World-building, interesting characters you want to learn more about, breathless adventure, and a determined and intelligent heroine, make this trilogy-opener a winner.

GRADES 9-12, chosen by Louise Capizzo

“These are books that I love and still think about from time to time,” said Capizzo of her teen selections. “Do you ever have that feeling of sadness after reading a wonderful book, a book that kept your interest; a book that had you racing through chores or rushing home so you could get back to your characters. And you didn’t want to finish the book too quickly, because then the story would be over. When that happens to me, I feel a bit sad because I will never be able to experience this book for the first time ever again.”

One Whole and Perfect Dayby Judith Clarke

With all the chaos from her family as they prepare for her grandfather’s eightieth birthday, Lily’s wish is to have just one whole and perfect day. Set in Australia, many threads come together in this thoroughly engaging novel.

Finding Somewhere by Joseph Monniger

Hattie and her friend Delores kidnap a horse slated to be put down because of age. The three embark on a road trip across America and find many surprises, but most importantly the power of friendship.

The Thief by Megan Turner.

One of the best books I have ever read. Set in fully imagined medieval land, Gen, a thief, has one chance to save himself from life imprisonment by stealing Hamiathes’s Gift. Yet, things are not what they seem.

Eleanor and Parkby Rainbow Rowell

Two high-school misfits find love and friendship in this warmly told story that takes place in 1966 over the course of one year. Their path to romance is gentle, sweet, believable, and some scenes – how Park strokes Eleanor’s hand – will leave readers breathless. Achingly beautiful.

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

Set in New Orleans in a futuristic world, Nailer works by scavenging copper wire from beached tankers. When he finds a luxurious clipper ship with a survivor aboard, Nailer must decide whether to sell her or help her. Gripping. Exciting, with plenty of action.

The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff

Set in Britain under Roman rule. Marcus Flavius Aquila, a Roman soldier, sets off beyond Hadrian’s Wall; a land ruled by native tribes, to discover what happened to the First Cohort of the Ninth Legion that was commanded by his father. Historical fiction at its best.

By Jennie Rose

Summer can be a mixed bag, a combination of relief from the stress of school, followed by boredom, the bugaboo of a creative mind. The break from school offers a chance to carve out enriching, fun projects and beat the doldrums brought about by summer loafing. The warm weather is a great invitation to enjoy and learn about the outdoors during this time off. Here are 10 learning opportunities for kids to come away from the summer months invigorated with fresh skills.

1. EMBARK ON BIRDWATCHING ADVENTURES. Local chapters of the Audubon Society host birdwatching outings, where those new to birding can benefit from the expertise of the pros. Kids can learn about the local ecosystem, as well as wildlife adaptability and habitat preservation. If birding catches their fancy, they can keep the adventures going with YardMap, a citizen science project designed to cultivate a richer understanding of bird habitat. The YardMap network lets you draw your landscapes with a beautiful online mapping tool and connect to other citizen scientists, solve problems, share maps and ideas, all while helping to build database of habitat data for Cornell Lab of Ornithology Scientists.

Flickr:EdwardGoodwin

2. GO ON A HIGH-TECH TREASURE HUNT. With a GPS device and coordinates from geocache.com, kids can participate in a scavenger hunt and look for one of a million treasure spots around the world. If they find the cache or hidden treasure, they can re-hide it in the same place or stash their own goodies in a hidden spot. The best part is logging the finds and sharing their experiences on the site.

3. HANG A ROPE SWING. With about 10 feet of rope and a buntline hitch knot, it’s easy to build a tree swing. Kids can learn knotting and building skills and do the math to determine attachment points and rope lengths. If the backyard won’t work, there’s always the nearest park.

4. FARM THE BACKYARD. Anyone with any amount of space can grow food. Whether it’s starting a small herb garden on the fire escape or building raised beds in the backyard, the process of growing food allows kids to develop an understanding about our food sources, nutrition, how irrigation works, even the importance of supporting local growers. Plus, they’ll benefit from having the responsibility of taking charge of their own important project.

Flickr:FlyingSinger

5. MAP THE RED PLANET. Kids can help scientists improve maps of Mars and participate in other research tasks to aid NASA in managing the large amount of data from the Red Planet. Users create Martian profiles and become “citizens” of the planet. In the map room, they can then earn Martian credits by helping place satellite photos on Mars’s surface, counting craters, and even helping the rovers Spirit and Opportunity by tagging photos with descriptions.

6. PERFECT THE AIM. Nothing enhances visual acuity and predictive ability like target practice. Archery clubs can be found in most cities and welcome all ages (grade school) and skill levels. Start by attending a tournament or taking a lesson at an archery range.

7. ACTIVELY LISTEN. The Acoustics Research Centre at the University of Salford is building a sound map of the world as part of a new study into how sounds in our everyday environment make us feel. Kids can use a mobile phone to record 10 to 15 second clips from different soundscapes, upload the clips to our virtual map, along with opinions and ideas about the recorded sounds.

8. ORGANIZE A RECYCLING PROGRAM. Kids can learn about leading a recycling project by organizing a group of young recyclers. Local recycling centers, municipality and waste haulers often list the types of materials that are accepted. Apart from learning about sustainability and limited resources, kids will build leadership skills.

Flickr:KarenRoe

9. HELP POLLINATORS. Kids can join the nationwide effort in tracking bee pollination by taking 15-minute counts of the number and types of bees that buzz around sunflowers and other plants. With data collected from the public, the Great Sunflower Project can determine where pollinator service is strong or weak compared to averages. Native Buzz is another citizen science project created by the University of Florida Honey Bee Research and Extension Lab. Kids can also keep track of their own native buzz nest site and see the results of other participant’s nest sites. Or help pollinators in their own way by building or buying own bee houses, and provide nesting habitats for bees.

10. RESCUE ANIMALS. Conservation non-profits offer summertime youth volunteer programs that introduce students ages 15 to 17 to the importance of volunteerism. By volunteering at the local SPCA or with a marine mammal rescue facility, kids can work alongside adults, develop interpersonal skills, and observe professional scientists.